Economic Reporter :
Private commercial banks (PCBs), including the foreign ones, are now playing leading role in disbursing agriculture credit as they have together disbursed Tk 8354.33 crore in the nine months (July-March) of fiscal year 2016-17 (FY17).
During the period, PCBs have disbursed Tk 7822.26 crore against its annual target, fixed by Bangladesh Bank, of Tk 7827 crore for FY17.
Nine foreign commercial banks (FCBs) have already crossed their annual disbursement target of Tk 433 crore as they have disbursed Tk 532.07 crore, up by Tk 99 crore, according to Bangladesh Bank (BB) data.
All banks have disbursed a total of Tk 15,810.42 crore or 90.09 percent till March against their total target of Tk 17,550 crore for FY17.
"Once state-owned commercial bank (SCBs) played major role in disbursement of farm and non-farm credit but the PCBs and FCBs are now secured the leading position in channelizing the farm credit and their recovery rate is highly satisfactory," BB's chief spokesperson Subhankar Saha told.
During the period SCBs and specialized banks have disbursed a total of Tk 7,456.09 crore or 80.26 percent against their total target of Tk 9,290 crore.
"Considering the performance of PCBs and FCBs, BB is planning to increase their disbursement targets in future, the BB official said. Every month, BB holds meeting with scheduled banks to expedite agriculture loan disbursement as it is our priority area," he added.
"We're disbursing agricultural credit in line with the central bank's guideline and PCBs are gradually improving their performance comparing to the SCBs. As PCBs are disbursing the credit through selected NGOs of PKSF, they can easily achieve the disbursement target. Our recover rate is also good," Abdul Baten Chowdhury, executive vice president of Southeast Bank, told.
Deputy managing director of Islami Bank Abu Reza Mohd. Yeahya said his bank can properly disburse the agro-credit because it channels the credit to farmers through its Palli Biniok Prokalpa. About the recovery rate, he said the credit recovery rate is also high at 98 or 99 percent. "Private banks are now more conscious about the disbursement of agro-credit and as the central bank monitors and guides the disbursement, PCBs are now reaching the farm credit to farmers with the help of their SME desks and agent banking activities," said Anis A Khan, chairman of Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB).
Khan, who is also managing director of Mutual Trust Bank, said his bank carries out different campaign programmes to make farmers aware about the agricultural credit and its disbursement process. Even the officials of the bank also teach farmers on how application can be filed for opening bank accounts for agricultural loans, he added.
In fiscal year 2015-16, PCBs disbursed about Tk 8,360 crore against their target total of about Tk 6,717 crore while FCBs disbursed about Tk 510 crore against their total target of Tk 393 crore. SCBs and specialized banks disbursed Tk 8,776 crore against their total target Tk 9,290crore.
In 2014-15 fiscal, PCBs disbursed about Tk 6,584 crore against their total target was Tk 5,890 crore and FCBs disbursed about Tk 476 crore against their total target of Taka 420 crore. Specialized and state-owned banks disbursed Tk 8,918 though their total target was Tk 9,240crore.
Subhankar Saha, executive director of BB, said all banks have been able to exceed the agricultural loan disbursement target over the last couple of years and the present trend of credit disbursement indicates that the disbursement target in the current fiscal is likely to exceed.
In the last nine months for FY17, the average rate of recovery of agricultural credit was 68.15 percent which was 68.06 percent in the same period of FY16.